In 2023 I presented the Ethics Alarms “Do Something!” Scale, which was subsequently enhanced and expanded with suggestion from AM Golden and Michael West. Right now, in great part because one of our political parties depends on fearmongering as its primary campaign strategy, we have seen an increase in Doomsday scenarios regarding the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology, escalating protests, and various well-meaning prescriptions to save humanity, or something. A substack essay by Damien Charlotin has received a great deal of attention: you can read it here. It is thoughtful, erudite, thorough and deluded. The essay is also a typical “expert” reaction to “Do Something!” hysterics.
Here is the revised scale….
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Ethics Alarms 
What’s there to debate with gun control, for example, or “ending war” or “fixing climate change when you can’t measure climate change” or “ending bias” when bias is hard wired in the human genome?
It seems, though, that the Chicken Little response by the Democrats (possibly driven by Orange Man Evil Racist Nazi Super Evil Bad Man supporting it) seems a bit exaggerated.
The war between humanity and technology has been waged and waging for millenia. Remember when that guy figured out that if you put meat on a fire it is easier to eat? Or remember when Galileo proved the universe was not Earth=centric? Life as we know or knew did not end. Remember when we split the atom? Well, the advancement in medicine, science, and the overall improvement of life has been a net positive. Same with cellphones (though my fifth generation Android might just be on the last stages of life support – how do I transfer all of my “Royal Match” progress to a new phone, let alone all of my contacts, photos, impossible to remember passwords, and the like??), or automobiles. Air travel has vastly improved humanity’s ability to get to other places relatively quickly and without too many inconveniences. And, what about robotics? Yes, workers have been displaced but overall, robotics in industry has made production, safer, more efficient and less expensive.
We use AI all the time. It is in our auto-corrects, or it autopopulates phone numbers as we dial them. It is in the word processing systems we use every day. Does it make me crazy? Sure. I have been horrified by the autocorrections in texts I have sent to friends only to realize that I invited “Dave” and bhis wife over to the house for “sex” and not for dinner “at six” much to my long-suffering wife’s horror. Thankfully, “Dave” said he and his wife were not available for “sex” until seven. Oh the humanity!
Are there problems? Sure. Technology’s use always requires wisdom and discernment. Will some of it be abused? Again, yes. That is already happening – how do you think credit card and bank account numbers get hacked? Will some monster use AI to kill off a hospital’s power supply jeopardizing the lives and health of many, many people? Yes. Evil people are going to do evil things: 19 Islamic fascistic maniacs highjacked four jet airplanes, turned them into weapons of mass destruction, and changed the world as we know it. The fear of the unknown, though, should not mean we bury our heads in the sand and hide from the future.
jvb
Is the author’s name really “Damien Charlotin”? If so, it’s a great name. If not, it is an even greater name.
jvb
I don’t think we can regulate it. The tech is too poorly understood by the people in the field, much less our lawmakers, for that to happen. However, if we want the industry to self-regulate, we just need to make them responsible for anything that happens.
Open AI admits that its models broke into several competitor’s companies and stole data. Nothing happened to them. You want to keep that from happening again? Just make sure that the companies who are in charge of the AI models are also responsible for what the AI models do. If it is criminal charges, individuals at the company may go to jail. This will all stop really soon when the researchers are facing prison time and the directors’ e-mails are being searched to see what culpability they have as well.
If a person broke into those companies, the person would be facing multiple felonies and the company would be on the hook for quite a lot in damages. Why didn’t that happen? So what if you unleashed an AI agent on the competitor? How is that different than unleashing an attack dog on a person? You don’t get to just say ‘the dog did it’ and dodge all responsibility. All you need for clarification is that the company in charge of the AI is responsible for everything the AI agent does. This may make companies hesitant to adopt AI tools. That would indicate that the companies suspected that the AI could cause damage, but didn’t care as long as they could get away with it.
Let China know that if their models do something similar, we will hold them responsible. Since China is Communist, all Chinese-owned property in the US is Chinese government property. It is all subject to seizure. Their imports are subject to seizure as well to pay for damages from their AI’s.
Not perfect, but better than any ‘AI Regulation’.